Thief With No Shadow by Emily Gee

Author:Emily Gee [Gee, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2013-03-18T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

BASTIAN RETURNED WHILE Melke was in the kitchen. Broth simmered on the stove and mutton roasted in the oven. She stiffened when she heard his footsteps. Her fingers tightened on the spoon she held. She turned her head.

Endal trotted across the kitchen, his tail wagging, and touched his nose to her leg. Hello, the gesture seemed to say.

Bastian didn’t greet her as he came in out of the dusk. “Shoes,” he said, placing a string-tied bundle on the table. His voice was flat. “And your change.” The small copper coin clinked thinly as he put it down.

She nodded. A cool nod. Mam’s nod to the guards.

“And this.” He set a small basket on the table and pushed it towards her.

Melke put down the spoon. “What is it?”

He made no answer, merely opened his hand in a gesture she understood. See for yourself.

Melke stepped towards the table. Straw and... “Eggs.” An insult. She reached into the basket and took one in her hand, brown and smooth, and flexed her fingers around it. “They won’t spoil, if that’s what you think. It’s a fishwives’ tale.”

Bastian shrugged, a slight movement of one shoulder, His face was expressionless.

“Did you bring milk, too?” Her voice was sharp. “That won’t spoil either.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall, still watching her. “No milk.”

Anger made her reckless. She placed the egg back in the basket before it shattered in her hand. “Tell me, do you become a hound when the moon is full?”

Bastian’s eyebrows lowered. He pushed away from the wall and uncrossed his arms. “Of course not.”

She smiled at him, tightly. “And I don’t sour milk or curdle eggs or become seen when salt is cast at me. Or chase all the spiders from a house. Ask Endal whether I lie.”

“I have asked him.” Bastian’s smile was as tight as her own, mocking. “He says you tell the truth.” He snapped his fingers. “Endal.”

The hound transferred his attention to Bastian, his head slightly cocked.

“Don’t let her out of your sight,” Bastian said. The words, the flat hostility in his voice, were insulting. He’d left her unguarded all day and now he set his hound on her again. “Bite her if she becomes unseen.”

Melke crossed her arms and raised her chin, to show him that she didn’t care.

“The equinox starts in four days.”

He was gone before Melke found her voice. “I know,” she whispered. “I know.”

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